New alternatives to imatinib emerge for CML patients

摘要

Positive results for a wave of new treatments for chronic myeloid leukaemia patients who do not respond to imatinib therapy were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Atlanta,Georgia,this week.The potential of these new drugs is also discussed in a Lancet Oncology paper (2007;8:1116).The paper points out that,although the first-generation tyrosine-kinase inhibitor imatinib can induce excellent long-term responses in most patients,around a quarter of patients will not respond or will lose previous responses and for these patients other treatment options are needed.